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ROTTERDAM — It’s young, it’s hip — and it’s a city on the move. That is the vibe you get from this modern, upbeat and future-looking metropolis.Heavily bombed during the Second World War, Rotterdam was forced to rebuild extensively. It has done so with architectural innovation, forward-thinking and a strong emphasis on the environment.

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Resting on stilt-like supports, the new gallery building would have three floors dedicated to a restaurant and auditorium sandwiched between exhibition space above and below. The design has been described as transparent, open and inviting.

Julia Child compared Marseille's hot noise to Paris' cool sophistication. When she lived there in the 1950s, she described it as "a rich broth of vigorous, emotional, uninhibited life" - a veritable "bouillabaisse of a city." But the celebrated chef wouldn't recognize the second-largest city in France since the latest of its many makeovers.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings went 57-0 that year as baseball’s first officially professional team. Player-manager Harry Wright’s team added new players before the season, led by his brother, George, who was credited with a .633 batting average and 49 homers.

A shiny, chrome-coated Beechcraft 18 aircraft that was once used by former B.C. cabinet minister Phil Gaglardi to inspect the province's highways is one of the historic exhibits at B.C.'s Aviation Museum.

Maine is a unique blend of vast forests, craggy seacoast, and a commercial and cultural capital whose attractions many much larger cities should envy. While 90 per cent of Maine is covered with trees, Portland revels in its revitalized, now-dynamic port area, fine dining and shopping.

Nothing may compare to the buzz of big cities like Seattle and Spokane, but Washington’s smaller towns exhibit charm that’s seemingly unaltered by their technology-centred neighbours. Fall in love with small town livin’ in one of these petite Metro Seattle cities, where you’ll find picturesque farms, historic places and antique-shopping havens.

Amsterdam is unique in many ways. With more than 800,000 registered bicycles, and likely almost as many unregistered, it may be the most bike-friendly city in the world. There are museums and tourist attractions galore, and you can access them all by bike. The scenery is fantastic, with endless canals and boats and ancient architecture.

People are reasonably friendly, but on the frantic side. They are busy, busy, busy, so you don't normally expect too much TLC. That makes the approach at the Casablanca Hotel, just a few steps from the heart of Times Square, both unusual and welcome.

Normally tourist attractions like museums, castles, churches and forts are not at the top of my must-see list when I go on trips. I prefer markets, cafes and street life where you can get to meet the people, who then share with you what they consider to be the most interesting aspects of their community, and off you go.

Nearly a year after two Surrey residents were arrested and accused of plotting to bomb the Victoria legislature on Canada Day, a pre-trial hearing for the pair opened in Vancouver. Lawyers for John Stuart Nuttall and Amanda Korody, who were charged last July with terrorism-related offences, appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday for the first of four days of legal submissions.

If you ask people in Buenos Aires which is the oldest area, San Telmo or La Boca, an argument in Spanish will likely ensue. I found that attempting to stop the heated exchange would, at best, result in a time out to explain to me in English that they were not fighting; they were discussing.

No trip to Japan is complete without a stop in Hiroshima. Nearly seven decades after Aug. 6, 1945 when it became the first wartime target of an atomic bomb, Hiroshima today is a modern industrial centre with harrowing remembrances of horrors past.

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